Commission ready to dredge at end of Belcher’s Creek in West Milford

Newly appointed N.Y. Greenwood Lake Commission Co-Chairman Steve DeFeo (left) is back on the commission after resigning. With DeFeo are GLC NJ Co Chairman Ella Filippone and former GLC NY Co Chairman George Vurno.

The Greenwood Lake Commission (GLC) is ready to dredge the Belcher’s Creek outflow/Brown’s Point section of bi state Greenwood. All the GLC needs, in addition to around $300,000 from Trenton, is Governor Chris Christie’s signature on the appropriation and support from State Senator Joe Pennacchio who, so far, according to GLC New Jersey Co-Chair Ella Filippone, has balked as supporting the appropriation.

According to Filippone, Pennacchio, whose constituency includes West Milford, won’t sponsor legislation appropriating dredging dollars unless he is sure that Christie will sign the bill.

"He (Pennacchio) wouldn’t want to embarrass the governor," said Filippone.

Dredging, commissioners believe, is the only solution to the problem of siltation in the shallow southern, New Jersey end of Greenwood Lake where aquatic weed problems persist due to the nutrient rich sediment that has been flowing into the lake for years.

Dredging, which removes nutrient rich sediment that promotes weed growth also deepens the lake. If the commission gets its New Jersey dredging dollars, it will have to find a way to dispose of thousands of cubic yards of material, some of which could be trucked to a turf farm and/or quarry.

The GLC has had dredging legislation in Trenton for years but no money was ever appropriated. Now the commission, armed with a $70,000 dredging study/plan, wants the state to appropriate the money for phase one of what is a multi-million dollar dredging plan.

Filippone, who is also head of the Passaic River Coalition, an influential environmental organization, said she would seek Christie’s approval directly then go to Pennacchio and ask him to sponsor the legislation.

Filippone noted that for years Pennacchio, when he was an assemblyman, supported the initial legislation appropriating dredging dollars for Greenwood Lake. That legislation dates back to the Whitman administration. Filippone said this is the first time that Pennacchio has balked at supporting a dredging appropriation for Greenwood Lake.

"Money is very hard to get out of Trenton these days," she said.

The sediment situation on the New York side of the bi-state lake is a bit more encouraging. The late New York State Senator Tom Morahan awarded the GLC a $300,000 members item grant years ago for work on the New York side of the lake.

While that grant has now dwindled, through state cuts, to about $223,000 the commission, last week, conditionally agreed to a Village of Greenwood Lake, N.Y. plan to dig up to five channels in the sediment and weed choked northernmost "arm" of the lake. The "arm," located within the village’s borders, was once a prime recreation area but is now very shallow due to years of sedimentation and weed growth.

The channels, according to Greenwood Lake Mayor Barbara Moore, would be 4-to-5 feet deep and 20 feet wide. Each of the anticipated five channels will cost about $20,000.

The commission voted 9-0 to approve $20,000 from the Morahan grant for the first channel project provided the village provides the GLC with a written plan.

According to Moore the channels will be opened by an aquamog, a shallow draft, floating excavator that can remove sediment, weeds and weed roots. The first channel, said Moore, is expected to take three weeks to complete. The contractor, she added, can work during the winter months.

The north arm of the lake is rapidly declining as a recreational body of water. The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation that will be asked to approve permits for the channel projects has already declared a portion of the arm a wetland.